Tesla Supercharger network reaches 50,000 charging points

Unlike other carmakers that started making electric vehicles, Tesla entered the mainstream EV business also setting up its own network of charging stations. Very early on, Elon Musk must have seen that ensuring owners could get their electric cars recharged easily and quickly was a vital key to adopting them.

Designed by Tesla
To optimise the design of the chargers, Tesla designed them itself so they are specifically suited to its own vehicles. Furthermore, the company focussed on DC charging for faster recharging (although it also has AC chargers), which made its chargers – called Superchargers – superior to many others which had slower AC supply.

Having had a head-start on building its charging network since 2012, it’s not surprising that Tesla has the largest network globally – certainly leading with DC fast-chargers. To date, its network consists of over 5,500 Supercharger stations and each station can have a number of charging points.

Supercharger No. 50,000
The company announced over Twitter that its 50,000th charging point was installed recently and it is located in the city of Roseville, California. The milestone Supercharger has been given a special red colour instead of the usual white finish on its unique stall design, and is identified with the number ’50,000’ at its base.

The Supercharger network covers North America and Asia-Pacific, which each have over 2,000 stations, and Europe which has over 1,000 stations. Depending on the location, the DC power supply is either 72 kW, 100 kW, 150 kW or 250 kW.

Destination Chargers
The Tesla charger network is supplemented by Destination Chargers in certain locations like hotels. Destination Chargers are like the wallboxes that can be installed at home (which Tesla also offers), and use AC power supply. So charging speeds are slower: compared to a Supercharger which can ‘fill’ up to 120 kms of range in 5 minutes (with a V3 Supercharger), the Destination Charger provides 50 – 70 kms of range in an hour.

Tesla began setting up Superchargers in Malaysia this year, in preparation of delivering cars to customers before the end of 2023. The first V3 230 kW stations to be operational are located in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and there will be 12 locations in the Klang Valley, Penang, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Johor.

Click here to see where the Superchargers in Malaysia are located

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